Biggles in the South Seas/plot
Chapter 1: Biggles Meets an Old Friend Biggles, Algy and Ginger meet Sandy Macaster, an old friend from Biggles' R.F.C. days. Sandy had just returned from several years living it rough in the South Seas but has a story to tell. While sailing as crew on a schooner captained by an unsavoury character named Castenelli, he had spotted a fabulous bed of pearls near an unnamed and uninhabited island. Castenelli had tried to kill him to keep the secret for himself but Sandy escaped by jumping overboard and survived when the current swept him to the island. After three months he had been picked up by two South Sea natives, a girl named Full Moon and a boy named Shell-Breaker. According to Sandy, the secret of the oyster bed was safe with him. Only he knew the position and he had thrown the sextant overboard when Castenelli had attacked him. Even so, Sandy had had no success in the South Seas or in Australia trying to persuade anyone to join him on an expedition to fetch the oysters. In desparation, he had returned to London. After hearing the story, Biggles offers to mount a joint expedition. He would provide the aircraft and finance the diving kit while Sandy led them to the location. The profits would be split four ways. Chapter 2: An Encounter with Castenelli Biggles, Algy and Ginger depart for the South Seas in a Scud flying boat. Sandy had gone on ahead to arrange refuelling stops at Raratonga and Vaitie. At Vaitie, Biggles discovers that Sandy had been injured in a fight with Castenelli's men at Tahiti. Sandy's arm needs time to heal, so Biggles decides to go with a lugger captained by the Polynesian Namu to Tahiti to pick up news. Castanelli's schooner is there taking on stores. What's more, Namu learns that Castanelli had kidnapped Shell-Breaker from Rutuona. Biggles and Namu encounter Castenelli in a harbourfront bar. Castenelli accuses Namu of snooping on him and wants to beat him up but Biggles will have none of it. Castenelli draws a knife but Biggles moves faster and decks him. Leaving the bar later, they discover that Castenelli's schooner had made sail. Chapter 3: Ginger Has a Fright It is obvious that Castenelli has kidnapped Shell-Breaker in order to get from him the location of Sandy's island and the oyster shell-bed nearby. Namu has also learnt that Castenelli had bought a diving suit from Sing Hoo, a Chinese trader at Tahiti. Sandy reasons that Castenelli might call at Rutuona on the way to Sandy's island so Biggles and co. resolve to beat him there by air. Arriving at Rutuona, they are welcomed by Chief Roaring Wave of the village where Full Moon and Shell-Breaker come from. Ginger takes a walk on the beach, to be joined by Full Moon. Here they have the obligatory dangerous encounter with a gigantic sea creature, in this case, a giant octopus. Chapter 4: The Rescue Party News arrives that Castenelli has dropped anchor on the far side of the island. Biggles leads a rescue party with some of Roaring Wave's warriors overland across the mountain in the middle of the island. They storm Castenelli's schooner and free Shell-Breaker and bring him back to the village. Chapter 5: Sandy's Island Biggles and co. are awakend by Full Moon. Castanelli is sailing into the bay! The schoner is making for the Scud with the intention of ramming it. Full Moon and Ginger make a desperate swim for the aircraft and fend the aircraft off as the schooner comes bearing down. Biggles and the rest get on board and start up and the Scud makes a hasty and dangerous take off in the direction of the surf. Leaving the schooner far behind, the Scud makes for the lagoon of Sandy's island where Biggles and co. set up camp. Chapter 6: "Till the Rope Breaks" The next day they taxi out of the lagoon towards the shell bed. Inevitably Sandy is not precise about its position but Full Moon dives into the water and locates it, bringing up an oyster shell as proof. Elated, Sandy descends to the bottom in the diving suit. Soon the aircraft is heavily laden with oyster shells. Sandy goes down for a second dive but this time stays down longer than normal. Then those on board the aircraft feel 4 tugs on his safety rope--that's the dreaded danger signal. They are to pull on it until the rope breaks. All on board heave but to no avail until Biggles ties the rope to the aircraft and starts the engines. Sandy is pulled free and comes up with another gigantic octopus attached to him. Knife thrusts from Full Moon and Shell-Breaker plus gunshots from Biggles soon despatch the monster. Back at the lagoon, Sandy surprises everyone by declaring he would go down again--all in a day's work for a diver, he says. Chapter 7: An Amazing Discovery" While Sandy recovers, Biggles and co. examine their collection of oysters and discover a fine harvest, with numbers of valuable pearls. To augment their food supply, Ginger, Shell-Breaker and Full Moon go fishing in the lagoon. While swimming, they discover a large underwater coral cave filled with air which reached to under the island. Chapter 8: Monsters of the Deep They continue diving but one day, Ginger, while swimming, encounters a large shark. Full Moon and Shell Breaker fight it off but are interrupted by giant swordfish. The swordfish now turns its attention on the aircraft and attacks, driving a hole in the floor. Biggles starts the engines in an attempt to get away but the flooding aircraft is too heavy. They are forced to jettison their diving gear before the Scud can unstick and make it back to the island. Chapter 9: The Luck Changes The next morning the Scud is repaired, after which Sandy sends Ginger, Full Moon and Shell Breaker fishing again. Then Biggles notices the air pressure dropping. The weather is worsening and the seas are already heavier. They try to get away from the island but Algy can't find Ginger and his companions. So they tie the aircraft down with more anchors and wait. The next morning the fishing party has still not returned but weather worsens even further. A hurricane is coming and they must take off or risk the aircraft being pounded to pieces. Flying through the storm, they barely make it back to Rutuona. Everything has gone wrong. They don't know where Ginger, Full Moon and Shell Breaker are, and now Sandy realises that he has forgotten tobring along the pearls they had found! Chapter 10: What Happened to Ginger Ginger, Full Moon and Shell Breaker had in fact gone into the cave they had found days before but there they had been stranded when a shark chose to swim into the same cave. They are forced to spend the night on a coral shelf inside the cave until the shark leaves. In the morning they swim back up to the island to find that it had been devastated by the storm. Full Moon and Shell Breaker expect that worse is yet to come so they tie Ginger and themselves to the trunks of coconut trees until the hurricane has blown over. Chapter 11: A Rude Awakening The next morning Ginger awakes to discover that Castanelli's schooner is sailing into the lagoon. The three friends watch from hiding as Castanelli comes ashore in a dinghy and discovers Biggles' campsite, now wrecked by the hurricane. Castanelli looks like he will stay for some time, so Ginger hatches a plan to steal Castanelli's dinghy and make back to Rutuona. But the plan goes wrong and Ginger is captured. Chapter 12: Disaster Kept as a prisoner on board the schooner, Ginger learns that the dinghy has been taken, so perhaps Shell Breaker got away after all. But Ginger's luck turns steadily worse. Castanelli finds Sandy's tin of pearls and having got what he wants, he makes ready to sail away. The Corsican decides he doesn't want any witnesses, so he ties Ginger to a heavy iron pipe and throws him overboard into the lagoon before sailing out. Chapter 13: What Happened at Rutuona At Rutuona, Biggles discovers that the wing of the Scud has been damaged and will need to be repaired before it can fly. They make their way to the village to contact Roaring Wave. Nearing their destination, they are shocked to meet warriors all decked in war paint. Out comes Shell Breaker! He has returned in the dinghy and brought the news of Ginger's capture. Roaring Wave and his warriors are getting ready to paddle their war canoe to attack Castanelli. Biggles gets Roaring Wave to a joint operation. The Scud cannot fly but can taxi, so it takes in tow the war canoe full of warriors and the expedition heads out for Sandy's Island. Chapter 14: Out of the Depths Full Moon had stayed behind and hid on Castanelli's ship to keep watch. When she sees Ginger thrown overboard, she dives in and cuts him free from the iron pipe. She then drags him onto the reef where he slowly recovers from his near drowning. But their troubles are not over. For some reason, Castanelli's schooner comes back into the lagoon and spots them. Castanelli's crew begins a thorough search of the island for Ginger and Full Moon. The two of them decide that they must hide in their underwater grotto. They are spotted just as they dive into the water but they make it safely to their hiding place. Chappter 15: Trapped! Castanellia's men discover the grotto and he decides to blast it from the top with dynamite. The grotto roof caves in after a few blasts, exposing Ginger and Full Moon. Castanelli tosses a final stick of dynamite into the cavern but Ginger catches it and throws it back up at him. Chapter 16: The Tables Turned After the explosion, Ginger and Full Moon climb out of the cavern to find that the Marquesan warriors from Rutuona have arrived and launched their attack. Castanelli is killed by a shark while swimming back to his schooner. Chapter 17: Full Moon Springs a Surprise Biggles and co. are glad to be alive but regret the loss of the pearls, which they are sure have now been burnt to cinders after the Marquesans set fire to Castanelli's ship. Full Moon surprises them by saying that she had picked up the tin of pearls while hiding on the Avarata. She tossed into the lagoon when she was trying to save Ginger. The tin is fetched and everyone returns to Rutuona. Chapter 17: The End of the Trail After a celebratory feast on Rutuona, Biggles and co. take their leave, with Ginger promising to come back to see Full Moon and Shell Breaker. The pearls are sold for a tidy sum and divided among the friends. Biggles, Algy and Ginger return to England while Sandy decides to buy a ship and become a trader, although the others suspect that he really wants to do more pearl diving. Category:Plot summaries